The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Chapter Twenty-six

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF HILLEN ARMOUR MUNSON (I)
b. 1863 — d. 1909

SUMMARY
The sixth child and fourth son of Mordello and Sarah Munson, born on July 31, 1863, at Bailey’s Prairie, was named Hillen Armour Munson. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Solomon Hillen Armour. Armour was raised at Ridgely Plantation and spent all of his adult life working there. His descendants inherited the site of the old home place and still own it and live there today. In 1890 Armour married Lilla Mary Cox of Alvin, and they had three children: Walter Bascom, Mary Alice, and Carrie Armour. Armour was shot and killed by a threatened black man in 1909 at the age of 46. Lilla died in Houston in 1934.



Armour and Lilla Cox Munson

Hillen Armour Munson was born during the midst of the Civil War. Mordello had been home on leave in the fall of 1862, and he was again home as a released prisoner from the Battle of Vicksburg in the summer of 1863. It is possible that he was home for the birth of Hillen Armour, as the surrender at Vicksburg was on July 4 and Armour was born on July 31.

Armour, as he was always called, was educated at home like the other children and did not attend college. He apparently grew up on the plantation and remained there, always helping his father with the duties.

On October 22, 1890, at the age of 27, Armour married Lilla Mary Cox from Alvin, and they lived with Mordello at Bailey’s Prairie. Three children were born to them: Walter Bascom, born at Bailey’s Prairie on May 31, 1895; Mary Alice, born in Angleton on March 11, 1902; and Carrie Armour, born in Angleton on August 30, 1905. Armour, Lilla, and son Bascom lived with Mordello at Ridgely until 1901 or 1902, when they moved to a house in Angleton, and the Kennedy family moved from Angleton to live with Mordello. Family members tell that Lilla did not like living in the country but preferred living in town, while Armour liked living and working at Bailey’s Prairie. Daughter Carrie recalls memories, when she was a small girl in Angleton, of her father arising in the dark of early morning, saddling his horse for the five mile ride to Bailey’s Prairie, and returning late in the evening.

The details of the death of Armour Munson are recorded in an eleven-page typewritten manuscript by Mr. Joe Jamison, a participant in all phases of the bizarre episode [1]. In September of 1909 two black men named Otto Cooper and Charles Delaney escaped from the Angleton jail. Cooper was charged with breaking into Joe Jamison’s house and stealing his wife’s watch and ring. Delaney had been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his son with an axe and was in jail awaiting transfer to the state penitentiary. With guns they fled north toward the Anchor and Chenango stations of the Houston Tap Railroad, hoping to catch a ride to Houston. At Chenango, about ten miles north of Angleton, the escapees came upon the stationmaster, Mr. J. T. Hardin. Hardin was a prominent rancher in the area, and he had been notified of the escape by the then new miracle of telephone. In a brief nighttime shoot-out, Hardin was fatally wounded and the fugitives fled.

As the news spread, many citizens were stirred to action and began forming posses to try to catch the fugitives. The sheriff sent some deputies together with some other young men to Sandy Point, north of Chenango, where he understood Charles Delaney had lived. On reaching Sandy Point, the men stopped by the saloon, had a few drinks, and inquired if Charles Delaney had any kinfolks nearby. They learned that a cousin of his named Steve Hays lived about three miles away, between Sandy Point and Rosharon. The deputies and the other men rode out to ask Steve Hays if he had seen or heard anything of Charles Delaney. Hays told them he didn’t know anything about Delaney — that his home was several miles away on another plantation. The brash young white men, possibly under the influence of alcohol, threatened that they would come back later, and if Hays didn’t tell them where Delaney was they would kill him.

Now quoting from the Jamison story:


     As the news spread. . . Mr. Armour Munson, a rancher and member of one of the oldest aristocratic families of the County. . . heard of Mr. Hardin’s death and decided to ride up to Sandy Point, 20 mi. from Angleton, to help catch the fleeing Negroes. He learned at Sandy Point that Steve Hays lived near and was a cousin to Chas. Delaney. He said he knew Steve Hays, as Hays used to work for him, so he, in company with the young men who had been out to the Hays’ shack and knew the way, set out to see Steve again. They didn’t tell Mr. Munson that they had threatened Hays. When they rode up, Mr. Munson took the lead and called to Steve to come out, that he wanted to talk to him about Chas. Delaney. The young men drew their guns, Mr. Munson told them to put their guns down, that he knew Steve and he would come out and talk to them, and he called again, “Come out, Steve, you remember me, don’t you? You used to work for me.” About that time the door cracked open just a little and a gunbarrel stuck out and fired, a load of buckshot hit Mr. Munson in the face and chest, killing him instantly, and he fell from his horse on his face to the ground.

Family tradition tells that at that moment Steve Hays’ wife cried out, “Steve, you just shot your best friend.” This incident was followed for several days by a vigorous, armed search for the fugitives in the local woods, underbrush, and cane fields, accompanied by a drunken rampage by some of the searchers. Several men on both sides were killed — Steve Hays among them. Charles Delaney was captured and sent to prison. Otto Cooper was never apprehended.

Armour Munson was killed on September 15, 1909. He was 46 years old. He is buried in the Munson Cemetery at Bailey’s Prairie, on the land where he had spent practically his entire life.

Lilla Munson, who had severe attacks of asthma, raised the children in Angleton. In about 1929 Lilla and daughter Carrie moved to San Antonio to live with daughter Alice and her husband, Jack Ball, in an attempt to lessen Lilla’s asthma attacks. Lilla died in Houston on August 8, 1934, and is buried in the Angleton Cemetery.

When Mordello’s children divided their father’s estate in 1907, the property on which the plantation house had stood, together with 416 acres around it, was deeded to Armour. Armour then purchased the 380 acres that had been deeded to brother Bascom and thirty-five acres from brother Joseph Waddy. Additional small parcels were added later, and the family owns 939 acres of that land today.


The Descendants of Hillen Armour Munson and Lilla Mary Cox


Bascom Munson II

The first child of Armour and Lilla was named Walter Bascom Munson, named for Armour’s brother, Walter Bascom. He was born at Bailey’s Prairie on May 25, 1895, and lived his young years there and in Angleton. He was fourteen when his father was killed. In young adulthood, Bascom worked in the oil fields of Louisiana and East Texas, and it is reported that he was a typical oil field “roughneck.”

In Louisiana he met Jessie Rawls, and, when he was about 22, they were married in the First Methodist Church in Shreveport. Jessie was born on December 10, 1890. For a while Bascom owned his own drilling rig, and later he was employed by Reed Rollerbit Company in Longview and Kilgore, Texas. In later years he and Jessie lived in Houston and Angleton.

In 1955 Bascom and Jessie built a large, beautiful home under the live oak trees at Bailey’s Prairie near the location of the original Ridgely Plantation home of Mordello and Sarah. Mordello and Sarah had built there just one hundred years before, and their home had been destroyed by fire in about 1905. The depression for the underground water cistern can still be found in the front yard of Bascom’s house. Recent excavations of the site have uncovered farm implements, old china, household goods, and a Confederate belt buckle.

Bascom loved this home and his surrounding cattle ranch, which he named the Munson Ranch. Working with his long-time black employee, Taylor Hall, he greatly improved his land by clearing the underbrush and leaving the majestic live oak and pecan trees. Much of the work was done at night because Taylor Hall preferred not to work during the hot and humid days. Bascom was always proud to show off his ranch and his fine stock. He raised, at different times, quarter-horses and Santa Gertrudus, Red Angus, and Brangus cattle.

Bascom and Jessie had no children. Bascom died on October 20, 1973, at the age of 78, and Jessie on March 17, 1979, at the age of 88. Both are buried in the Munson Cemetery in the front pasture of their home.


Mary Alice Munson

The second child of Armour and Lilla was named Mary Alice Munson. She was born on March 11, 1902, in Angleton. She attended Angleton schools where she was a top athlete, the class beauty, and the valedictorian of her graduating class at Angleton High School. Her sister, Carrie, remembers how “all of the boys swarmed around her.” Alice attended the University of Texas, where she met W. B. Jack Ball of Farmersville, Texas. They were married in the Methodist Church in Angleton in about 1920 or 1921. They always lived in San Antonio, where Jack Ball was a lawyer. He was also active in the Masonic Lodge and became the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of Texas. Alice Ball died while visiting her sister, Carrie, in Angleton on February 28, 1945, at the age of 42. She is buried in the Angleton Cemetery. Jack Ball died on November 27, 1985, at the age of 89.

Alice and Jack Ball had one son, Thomas Armour Ball, who was born in San Antonio and graduated from the University of Texas Law School. He became a lawyer in 1950 and a Probate Court judge of Bexar County in 1963. He continued on the bench to at least 1987 when this was first written. Armour Ball married Claudia Hudspeth Abbey, whose family had large landholdings in West Texas and for whose grandfather Hudspeth County was named. They resided in a beautiful home on the headwaters of the Devil’s River in Val Verde County and maintain a town house in San Antonio. Claudia managed the livestock and wildlife operations of the ranch, and Armour commuted to San Antonio for his work there. Armour died in Bexar County on December 14, 1990.

Armour and Claudia had two children: William Armour Ball and Mary Alice Ball, both of whom married. William Armour Ball died of lung cancer on May 29, 1985, at the age of 30. He had no children. Alice holds a law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston. Information that was current in 1987 is that she had practiced law in Houston, Lake Jackson, and Angleton, and was divorced and living in the home built by Bascom at “the old home place” at Bailey’s Prairie. She was then engaged in private law practice in Angleton. Alice remarried in 1989 and has at least three children, all born in Colorado County, Texas.


Carrie Armour Munson

The third child of Armour and Lilla, born on August 30, 1905, was named Carrie Armour Munson. She was born in Angleton and was named for Mrs. Carrie Brock, a close family friend and a descendant of the Stephen F. Austin family. Carrie Munson was raised in Angleton and graduated from Angleton High School. She attended the University of Texas, where she earned a teaching certificate, and she taught school in Angleton. She married George Hobson Roberts of Houston on June 30, “in the early 30s.” They lived in Houston, where Carrie completed her B. S. degree at the University of Houston.

George Roberts was a descendant of the Shepherd family, an early Houston banking family, and a widower with three children: George Jr., Stephen Lindsey, and Patsey Alice. Carrie and George raised these three, and they had no other children. All three children married and have children. George Roberts Jr. died in Miami, Florida, at the age of 26. Patsey Roberts married James Stratton Brock Jr., the grandson of Mrs. Carrie Brock.

In Houston George Roberts worked for the First National Bank, which was founded by his grandfather, Mr. B. A. Shepherd. During the late 1940s, Carrie and George used a small home on the Bailey’s Prairie land near the site of the original Ridgely home as a weekend and holiday retreat. As the years passed, they enlarged this home until they retired there in a lovely, large home in the early 1950s. Bascom and Jessie built nearby a few years later, and for twenty-five years the two couples lived in retirement at “the old home place.”

George Roberts died on November 22, 1976. Carrie died November 6, 1991, in Houston, Texas, at age 86. Both are buried in the Munson Cemetery at Bailey’s Prairie.

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